Hubble Telescope Photo of a Spooky Dead Star will Creep You Out

The image, released conveniently in
time for Halloween, reveals the remains of a star that exploded years ago as a
supernova in the Crab Nebula, 6,500 light-years from Earth, leaving behind a
"tell-tale heart," according to NASA.

"The 'heart' is the crushed core of the
exploded star, called a neutron star, it has about the same mass as the sun but
is squeezed into an ultra-dense sphere that is only a few miles across and 100
billion times stronger than steel. The tiny powerhouse is the bright star-like
object near the center of the image." NASA said in a statement.

The neutron star is spinning at 30 times per
second, producing an extreme magnetic field and "unleashes wisp-like waves
that form an expanding ring" seen in the photo, NASA added.

The new image was taken over the course of nine
months in 2012 using the Hubble. If you want to see the strange looking object
for yourself, find a telescope and point it at the Crab Nebula's part of space
in the constellation Taurus and if you do check out the nebula, you'd be in
good company.

NASA says that people on Earth have been
looking at the Crab Nebula since at least the year 1054, when astronomers in
China recorded seeing the then-mysterious cosmic object during daylight hours.

"Japanese, Arabic and Native American
stargazers also recorded seeing the mystery star," NASA said. "In
1758, while searching for a comet, French astronomer Charles Messier discovered
a hazy nebula near the location of the long-vanished supernova. He later added
the nebula to his celestial catalog as 'Messier 1,' marking it as a 'fake comet.'"

It took until 1928 for Edwin Hubble, the space
telescope's namesake, to link the "fake comet" with the object
Chinese astronomers observed centuries before.